[Recipe] Taiwanese Chewy Taro and Yam Balls QQ芋圓地瓜圓食譜

Ever since our Taiwan trip last November, I’ve been thinking about those tasty yam and taro balls from Jiufen. They were bouncy, chewy, and full of yam and taro flavour. You can find them here at Taiwanese restaurants such as Meet Fresh and Sweet Memory, but the texture just wasn’t the same. The ones here tend to be softer and you can’t really taste the root vegetables. Now that we are home all the time, we looked up different recipes to make these taro and yam balls. Turns out it’s not complicated at all and super easy to make. You can adapt it to other root vegetables or even red and mung beans. After a couple of tests and some adjustments, we finally came up with a recipe that worked to our liking.

Here is the recipe to make three flavours of these chewy balls, using purple yam, yam and taro. All three flavours follow the same instructions but the measurement of ingredients varies because of the water content of the root vegetables. In fact, we found that you don’t need to add water to the yam one, but more tapioca flour is needed. You will need to gauge the use of water and tapioca flour as you make the dough.

Ingredients

Purple Yam Balls

• 100g Purple Yam, steamed and mashed
• 40g Tapioca Flour
• 4 teaspoon Water

Yam Balls

• 100g Yam, steamed and mashed
• 50g Tapioca Flour

Taro Balls

• 100g Taro, steamed and mashed
• 40g Tapioca Flour
• 6 teaspoon Water

Instructions

1. Mix the root vegetable and tapioca flour together, and add a little bit of water at a time to form into dough. You may adjust the amount of water and tapioca flour based on the wetness of the dough ball.

2. Roll into a strip then cut into pieces.

3. Boil them in rolling hot water until they float to the top and start to expand (1-2 mins). Drain and throw them in a cold water bath right away.

4. Once cooled in the water bath (about 3-4 minutes), toss them in sugar to sweeten them to taste (roughly 1 tablespoon sugar per portioned above).

The results? These bouncy, chewy tapioca balls were so good even on their own. The texture reminds me of bubble tea pearls, but less chewy and with a hint of yam or taro flavour and subtle sweetness.

How to Enjoy Taro and Yam Balls?

For us, we tried to re-create the Taiwanese dessert with canned grass jelly, red bean and condensed milk.

Then, we made a parfait with layers of granola, ice cream, sponge cake, red bean and purple yam balls.

How to Deal with Leftover Taro and Yam Balls?

Wait, why would you have leftovers?!

Fear not, if you end up with some leftover taro or yam balls, simply put them in the fridge. However, the texture will change after putting them in the fridge. Do not reboil them because they would turn soft. Do not eat them at room temperature because they would be too hard. The trick is to reheat them in the microwave until they are hot again (20-30 seconds).